PHOWN (PHOtos of Weaver Nests) (*)

PHOWN (PHOtos of Weaver Nests) is a citizen science monitoring project aimed at determining the distribution of colonies or nests of all weaver species globally, and studying the variation in their colony sizes. Counting weaver nests and taking photos allows tracking of changes in weaver breeding effort. This project provides an easy way of monitoring common weavers, while helping the conservation of threatened weavers. Download PHOWN flyer here. To take part, read here.

Total stats possible: There are 117 living species of weavers (species list). There are about 60 countries in Africa, Asia and the Indian Ocean where weavers occur naturally. The current world population is about 6.9 billion humans. The number of records that can be submitted is unlimited (not really, but rather many!).

Orange Weaver Ploceus aurantius

Introduction

The Orange Weaver was formally described by Louis Jean Pierre Vieillot, a French ornithologist. The birds had been collected by Jean Perrein, a French naturalist, who travelled in Africa and on other continents. Vieillot was interested in the habits of living birds, but Perrein did not seem to provide any field notes for the Orange Weaver, as he had done for the Crested Malimbe.

Vieillot mentioned that the Orange Weaver had been collected in the same area as the previous species in his publication, ie. the Crested Malimbe. Thus the type locality is Malimbe, now called Malembo, in Cabinda, Angola.

Perrein sent his specimens to Academy of Sciences in Bordeaux, France, from where the Orange Weaver type was moved to the Paris Museum (Swainson 1838).

Meaning of names

Alternate names

Collector

Date collected

Before 1805.

Locality collected

Malimbe =Malembo, Cabinda, Angola.

Type specimens

Type specimen probably still in the Natural History Museum in Paris.

All news items relating to this project

The headers below refer to Weaver News items featuring PHOWN. Click on a header to see the News item, which includes the full news item. (The number in brackets is the date that the news item appeared on Weaver Watch).